Mobile Armored Podcast Show

Matt Trakker Plays God

• Adam Moore and PJ McNerney • Season 1 • Episode 31

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Remember how much you respected and admired Matt Trakker when you were a kid? If you had known he was secretly funding gain-of-function research on flesh-eating bacteria, would you still respect and admire him? If your answer is "yes", then you're our target demographic. If your answer is "no", you're also our target demographic. All that, plus T-Bob gets dunked in slime, we prove Buddy Hawks is a V.E.N.O.M. agent, and Hurricane Hondo dishes out his signature badassery. It's another episode of the Mobile Armored Podcast Show!

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Adam:

Welcome to the mobile armored podcast show. The podcast that transforms into the blob. My name is Adam Moore alongside my cohost and best friend, PJ McNerney. How's it going PJ? Okay.

PJ:

I'm doing well. my family is recovering from being a little under the weather. which is great because school starts tomorrow again. it's funny. It's like, you know, There should be some lessons involved in not playing around with organisms And I feel like maybe we're going to get a lesson on that one today.

Adam:

Oh, we sure are, because it's episode 31, Deadly Blue Slime. Very on the nose. Mask goes to Africa, somewhere in Africa, to stop a botched experiment that has created a deadly blue slime that consumes everything in its path. Before we dive in here, I just want to say botched experiment is a bit of a lie because it's more like purposeful gain of function. Research is what happens here.

PJ:

100 percent that what's going to be great. We find out really soon. Guess who funded it?

Adam:

I'll give you all two guesses on who it is. Yeah so, uh, they traveled to quote unquote Africa.

PJ:

Yeah. Hold on. We got to stop right there. Like off before we even hit the first shot, they keep saying the entire episode in Africa as if Africa is a single country. It's a continent folks. And it is composed of 54 countries, and we're gonna talk about Mount Kilimanjaro, let's name it, it's in Tanzia, Tanzania, which is, I found this out today because I did a tiny bit of research, it is the most populous country south of the equator, fully south of the equator. But like the equivalent of this is if we were back in that England episode with the mystery of the rings and all that jazz, and if I were saying we're in Europe, and just called it Europe the entire time as this like massive blob,

Adam:

Yeah, it's a bit like if you're on the small world ride and you go through the Africa section. It's just a random nod and a hint of the variety of cultures on the continent.

PJ:

there's only one continent that is a single country. Which you know very well,

Adam:

I do know very well. It's Australia Which I pronounce correctly. It's not Australia. It's Australia. Now our one Australian fan will now be tuning out because I just got a Buddy Hawks nomination.

PJ:

You mean your wife is not going to listen to this?

Adam:

she's barely listening as it is. Hey, so let's start this thing, right?

PJ:

right.

Adam:

open on a shot of Mount Kilimanjaro and then we pan to a research station and inside we find these two scientists and we hear these lines of dialogue. Hey, Joe, you want an anchovy? And the other guy's like, too salty for me. Tastes like one of your experiments gone bad. First of all, possible Buddy Hawks nomination for how overly nerdy these guys sound.

PJ:

I agree. I found it more disturbing. The notion they're implying that they eat the experiments that go bad, that they eat the biological experiments. Is this

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

drunk game that they play? it's important to also point out these are the whitest researchers you will see ever. Everyone in this facility is the whitest set of people ever,

Adam:

Especially for being in Africa. It turns out one of these scientists is growing a rare blue algae. and the other scientist says, I heard it's almost as voracious as that snow leopard culture I've got. The other guy says warm it up a little and it actually attacks meat and nutrients in the dish. Wow, can you imagine what would happen if we crossed my white leopard cells with your blue algae cells? Like, I don't know guys, the end of the world? What are they trying to accomplish with their research?

PJ:

This was like, I feel like we have to head to ethics corner here for a second. first, what is going on here? Like why is it okay for these scientists to be doing these kinds of experiments in quote unquote Africa? Again, we're not going to mention Tanzania. Like away from some sort of governing research body that has oversight and they're clearly doing gain of function research on naturally occurring organisms.

Adam:

Yeah, It's got this blue algae. That's one thing, but what's up with the snow leopard culture?

PJ:

You bring up some really interesting questions here, because do they get the snow leopard culture from? Cause snow leopards, I do not think are native to Tanzania.

Adam:

well, suddenly a giant explosion rocks the lab, as typically happens in Mask. The scientists run outside to discover The handle of a drawer, like that's their big discovery is like the guy picks up the metal handle of a drawer and I don't quite understand what that beat means. Does it indicate their research has been stolen?

PJ:

I did not get this because they're like, he literally asked, where's the wooden drawer and shelves? clearly there's been an explosion that took out the concrete

Adam:

Right.

PJ:

And I was like, isn't it logical that the wooden drawer vaporized and the metal is all that's left here, guys?

Adam:

Yeah. What do you think happened to it? That wood was supposed to be indestructible.

PJ:

I'm glad we got top notch scientists working on this biological research material.

Adam:

Got our top men working on it. Top men.

PJ:

men.

Adam:

Oh, back at the tracker mansion Scott and T Bob are playing a tabletop space shooter video game. T Bob makes a little comment that robots are not subject to human error. And then Scott corrects him by saying, but I built you. Remember? So we better stop right there.

PJ:

We better stop right there. I think we did a may a couple on the a

Adam:

Last episode. Yeah.

PJ:

last episode we had taken the information from the UK comics column that Matt Tracker commissioned Alex sector to build T Bob for Scott. And we have to stop and think about how disturbing this is now. That means that he built a sentient robot,

Adam:

Right.

PJ:

or at least one that has the appearance of sentience, that passes the Turing test.

Adam:

Yeah,

PJ:

That means Scott's a genius, but what would drive a young boy to be forced to create his own best friend out of metal, a nanny even, whom Matt has tasked in the past of watching over Scott there is something seriously disturbing here,

Adam:

It's so incredibly sad. Here's another thing about the programming of T Bob. first of all, he says, I built you remember. So is it possible that T Bob doesn't remember? That Scott built him. And then the next line from T Bob's is I must be programmed to lose. So the second note of mine is think of how selfish Scott must be to program T Bob to lose games against him. So Scott then is a. Very disturbed, boy super genius, narcissist, insecure, like he is this massive plague of mental health issues. I don't know where to go with this other straight to inpatient therapy. Scott,

PJ:

I would love to be in that therapist office, just trying to listen to Scott. Like here is his truth. This is the reality he has experienced. Built my own robot who now takes care of me. I go on adventures with my dad and I frequently fall off large cliffs. uh, Like the therapist is going to think this kid's delusional. Like

Adam:

He's going to say, look, I'm a mandated reporter. And unfortunately I do have to report this to the authorities. Like I don't have a choice. Thanks for bearing with us as we dive into Scott's pathology. He and T Bob walk into Matt's office where Alex is sitting on the couch. Playing with a globe of the world, like it's a bouncing ball. rolling it around in his hands. Like what the what? Meanwhile, Matt is on the phone and he says, That's amazing. All the high altitude experiments are missing. So what we discovered here is that it's Matt's lab in Africa and that he was funding the research. So PJ, I've got to ask you, why is Matt funding research into meat eating algae?

PJ:

am happy to come to grips that Matt may actually be the billionaire bad guy here and we've got. so many examples he funded Brian, the brain, the sub,

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

the high speed jet. He funded the electrical train that the scientists then used to build blackout he's funded factories in Hong Kong. do we have to look back at all these quote unquote hospitals he's funded in other places and wonder if they're actually just like performing experiments in the Amazon or

Adam:

Right.

PJ:

he's literally like this, there's a direct connection here.

Adam:

Yeah. No, he's not building hospitals in, poverty stricken, rural regions in America or things like that. It's in the Amazon, far from the hands of the American authorities.

PJ:

if you needed to do high altitude experiments, guess what has high altitude? The state you live in, Matt, Colorado.

Adam:

it's true. And then the scientist he says, just get here at once before the authorities and the whole world learns about it.

PJ:

Whoa! we have theorized about this in the past, that Matt requires them

Adam:

Mm hmm.

PJ:

Him first. And they do.

Adam:

They literally do here. Yeah,

PJ:

of any authority is we have joked about this, but guess what? Here's our smoking gun. Are we prepping for a cover up?

Adam:

100%. Matt's thinking, great. Not only am I going to have to cover this up, but I've got a lot of scientists I have to kill now. Where am I going to put them all? I got to bring them back to Colorado and toss them in a ravine. Like, how is this going to work? Maybe there's a ravine in Tanzania.

PJ:

wonder if the mask jet refrigerators are cleaned out yet.

Adam:

well, Matt then turns to Alex, Scott and T Bob and says, Hey, you three, how would you like to come along to a whirlwind trip to Africa? somewhere in Africa.

PJ:

somewhere in Africa, a giant continent.

Adam:

And now we cut to some thatch roofed huts in Africa. It's a hotel, but apparently in Mask World, they don't have real buildings in Africa. They have thatched roofed huts. And Matt and Alex are gonna go investigating, while Scott and T Bob are instructed to, quote unquote, observe whatever is around the hotel. And in Matt's language, that means, Stay at the hotel.

PJ:

Yeah, he specifically says the patrolled area

Adam:

Yeah

PJ:

So, I mean, I guess it's some degree of safety?

Adam:

Okay. Alex has an awful dad joke in here. He says, you might even see a new and T Bob asks, what's a new? And Alex says, Oh, not much, what's anew with you? And he really busts out laughing there.

PJ:

He does, he's like, I haven't used that joke in a long time. And, What's great is it's both a bad dad joke, as well as fundamentally stereotyping how Italians speak English. Because that's the

Adam:

Hey, what's anew with you?

PJ:

new with you? So I feel like Alex is like really digging in his grave here.

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

Buddy Hawks award nomination for him on this one.

Adam:

Yeah, on top of that, a Buddy Hawks nomination for the writers for the Thatched Roof Hotel in Africa.

PJ:

look, they are piling on their lifetime achievement award with this episode.

Adam:

Oh, for sure. But Scott is super sad about having to walk around and look at nice things in Africa, huh?

PJ:

He's gonna go on the savannah and see like all the wonderful creatures that are there and the wonderful animals and he's so indignant

Adam:

Yeah,

PJ:

the fact he's got new clothes.

Adam:

he actually he has a little safari outfit, which is very nice But he's just so spoiled and just over it. He's like he's been every like whatever. Yeah Animals in the savannah. That's cool. Whatever

PJ:

world, dad, but I've never been home.

Adam:

We live in a house, but it's not a home. I want a home dad. We cut to the destroyed lab where Matt and Alex are investigating with Matt's lackey whoever sees the lab and they discovered that something organic ate its way out of the lab and towards the mountain and they actually go into a cafeteria like Matt pushes the door down, like now the door is off its hinges, but it's a big metal door. And this dude is strong enough to just stub the door down.

PJ:

He is beefy,

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

no one was behind that door,

Adam:

Yep.

PJ:

I want to really point something out, we're about to be on the precipice of a real danger that's here, I think it's worthwhile to state that Venom is not involved at all at this point.

Adam:

At all.

PJ:

This is entirely Matt's doing.

Adam:

Matt funded the research. The research got out of control. What caused the giant explosion?

PJ:

I don't know, cause they, we're going to find out that Venom only found out about this kind of through a technician after the fact, so

Adam:

That's a great point.

PJ:

shoddy safety standards at the lab is what caused the explosion.

Adam:

Yeah, that's right. I'm just realizing this now. Cause I thought it, I assumed when I saw the explosion that it all led back to venom, but you're right. It doesn't. This is completely Matt's fault.

PJ:

And I had one question since we're going to know that there's biological material being eaten, you think it's fair to believe there was at least one death of the staff there, either in the explosion or like in the aftermath of the giant slime eating that person?

Adam:

Yeah, I would imagine So on the floor of the cafeteria, Matt discovers an anchovy and he says the thing, whatever it is, does not have a taste for anchovies. And I can't say I blame it.

PJ:

anchovy jokes here. And I was wondering, do you think big pepperoni was behind paying for like this placement to really shit on

Adam:

Yeah, totally.

PJ:

pizza? Topping

Adam:

Yeah, I feel like there were a lot of anchovy jokes when we were a kid.

PJ:

there were,

Adam:

I don't even know what a an anchovy was. Meanwhile, Scott and T Bob are walking around the grounds around the hotel, seeing what animals are out there. And there's a shot. Did you notice this? We're Scott and T Bob. are walking past giraffes

PJ:

Yes.

Adam:

are about their size or smaller. Have Scott and T Bob suddenly grown to super size?

PJ:

The reality is this is like an animation era where they should have been further in the foreground. The draft should have been further in the background to get those, the perspective, they totally botched it. It's like reversed where

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

But if we accept this as Canon, I assume these were results of experimentation from the lab creating miniature giraffes, because why

Adam:

Yeah. Sure.

PJ:

Doing everything else.

Adam:

Surely there's some function that Matt could find with miniaturizing giraffes. This is an Alex thing. I can't fit giraffes in my exotic pet shop, but if you shrink them down, Matt, imagine the things I could do with them.

PJ:

Stop right there. I don't want to imagine the things you will do to them, Alex.

Adam:

yeah. Matt really is a super villain and Alex, what a henchman,

PJ:

He does look like Dr. Mindbender from GI Joe,

Adam:

right?

PJ:

like same beard, same bald head. All you need is a monocle.

Adam:

Well, we cut to The actual bad guys in the show who may actually be the heroes. But it's venom they're in their hideout. It's not as busted up as their typical hideouts are. But we opened the scene and Sly is talking about how he doesn't like smuggling illegal ivory out of Africa. And I was like, really, has this guy suddenly grown a conscience? This is the guy who laughs when he's opening fire on civilians,

PJ:

I want to double down on what you're saying. Cause we've seen him show a high concern for nature and the natural order of things with the Rotex, he had a whole thing. It was like, it's not natural.

Adam:

right?

PJ:

and he's had, I feel like this bent where it's like, he has a high concern for. For animals and nature and a low one for humans. So I'm now wondering if he's some sort of eco terrorist that thinks humanity should be thinned out, like he's in it basically because, for the drugs, but then also because he's got this like real, like extreme, conservationist, eco terrorism streak to him.

Adam:

let's a check for him in the hero column even though it's not the way we would want it to happen Sure, okay

PJ:

I want to re point out smuggling ivory is an awful crime. Like it's awful because it involves the death of elephants I want to still, how do we place it against doing biological experiments that create world killing organisms that run amok,

Adam:

Yeah, clearly much lower on the scale of evil, but also, look at again at what miles has them doing for money. They're smuggling ivory out of Africa.

PJ:

Yeah.

Adam:

the best you got up your sleeve right now, man, is we're going to go smuggle ivory out of Africa. How much could that actually earn them? Really? In 1980s money? Assuming they don't have a jet full of all the ivory from Tanzania. I don't know, several hundred thousands of dollars? Maybe a million at most? Come on, Miles. Get it together.

PJ:

again, like he's not desecrating statues on Easter Island anymore.

Adam:

True.

PJ:

he's trying to claw his way out. Okay. And this is the best he's got.

Adam:

Ugh.

PJ:

Topical for the eighties. I'll say that much. It

Adam:

sure. Yeah.

PJ:

point but again, misses the point in the larger evil of the episode. Yeah.

Adam:

Oh, completely. Because anyways, Miles says forget about the ivory. He's been tipped off by a lab technician at Mount Kilimanjaro that there's something deadly that eats everything alive on top of the mountain. So Miles new plan is to get control of this substance and blackmail every country in the world for billions. Now, I think there's a solid plan. Plan. It's a good high value ask on venom parts of miles is back on track here.

PJ:

So again, the lab is clearly within the tracker organization we do take it that Venom's got spies or at least, informants inside of said organization.

Adam:

not in Mask itself, obviously, but within Tracker Industries.

PJ:

I do want to point out again, this was a slight annoyance is that I can actually buy the fact that given the size of Africa venom and mask are there at the same time. It's just a big. Big continent. It is a little coincidental that they happen to be in the same country. So I did a tiny bit of research that

Adam:

Mm hmm.

PJ:

Of ivory smuggling did happen in Tanzania Burundi. So it would have been actually a fairly simple and logical thing to establish this line of dialogue that, Oh yeah, we're in Tanzania because of this ivory smuggling. So it's I, again, I want to kick it back to the writers for just being so. with the whole we're in Africa.

Adam:

Can I just go back to the mole in the tracker organization?

PJ:

Yeah,

Adam:

I have a guess for who I think is the obvious mole who we know as a character in mask who might be disgruntled enough to want to feed information to venom, who is also known as a bit of a master of disguise.

PJ:

oh, you mean someone who might have underground contacts?

Adam:

You have contacts in the underworld. Yeah.

PJ:

Could it be the man for whom we have named our racism award?

Adam:

It is indeed Buddy Hawks. So I pause it now and we will see how it pans out throughout the rest of the series that Buddy Hawks is an informant for Venom.

PJ:

Although in this particular case, just to be fair, Miles says it's a technician working at the lab,

Adam:

Huh.

PJ:

I will say that there's no way that Matt would let Buddy Hawks out of his job at Boulder Hill to be a technician out of a lab in Africa.

Adam:

No but he spent so much time alone at Boulder Hill that surely he's dived into the computer extensively, knows everything that's happening within Tracker Industries, and he can quite easily point miles to,

PJ:

So,

Adam:

Hey, Matt's got a lab.

PJ:

and how did he disguise himself? Africa, Adam, given what we've seen from him before. Cause that fucker is, has no bounds. He earns his award almost every time.

Adam:

Yeah, no, exactly. He would definitely be a local lab technician. From Tanzania and we'll leave it at that folks. So there we go. Another door blown wide open. You heard it here first, but back to the episode itself. Meanwhile, Matt and Alex are flying along in Thunderhawk and they're following the trail of this organic eating material and they finally catch up to it. And it's like this big, giant blue wave. Rolling across the land and Matt identifies it as quote unquote blue protoplasm and Alex surmises that the algae and leopard cells combined to create a new life form and Alex is already thinking of ways to either kill it or break its spirit or both

PJ:

is the right man for this mission, okay?

Adam:

oh yeah

PJ:

Matt, I have a proven record of breaking or killing animals, or both I deserve to be here. This thing's massive!

Adam:

It's huge.

PJ:

It's massive. Do you think Cloverfield was inspired by this?

Adam:

I'm sure JJ probably watched Mask.

PJ:

Probably.

Adam:

Matt declares it's time to call in the team and we go into the agent selection scene and he asks the computer to select agents. Best suited to combat a deadly new life form in East Africa. Alex sector preselected. As we pointed out, who else do they need to kill life forms? He's got Alex, the computer could just say, nah, you're good, man. All done, so the other, only other agent that's selected is Hondo McClain, and he's chosen because he's an expert on African geography along with being a weapons expert, but a couple things here. First, is the computer getting a Buddy Hawks nomination for choosing the black guy for African geography?

PJ:

Yeah, 100%. Like what exactly of geography comes into play here? Other than the fact that the writers apparently don't care about it because they keep calling it Africa

Adam:

Hondo just knows a All African geography from Morocco to South Africa, to Nigeria, to Kenya, to Tanzania. He just knows it all. And also a weapons expert.

PJ:

That's legit. Here's my thing. call in Hondo for every mission. Cause he's proven just to kick ass you can just be like select Hondo just because that's it. That's all you need.

Adam:

Yeah. Why not?

PJ:

all this other stuff, it just, it never comes into play.

Adam:

gets the call. He's in the classroom just teaching. Writing stuff on the board and once the watch rings, he just walks out of the classroom to the surprise of the students. First of all, why are they surprised? It happens all the time. But two, another guy who has already given up on his New Year's resolution to really just buckle down and become a better teacher. He's like, Nevermind. I'm out, but that's the team, man. The entire team is Matt, Hondo and Alex.

PJ:

Honda is awesome. We've got Thunderhawk. We'll have hurricane. We've got two mass vehicles. I do want to point out, this is another world ending event.

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

call in maybe a few more people?

Adam:

You'd think,

PJ:

we had close to the entire team on the Rotex episode. We had close to the entire team on Assault on Liberty. I think we had close to the entire team when they were landing the comet down on Oslo. I think this rises to the occasion of all hands on deck or the world is fucked. The only allowance maybe would be Brad, who might try to get high off the slime,

Adam:

Yes.

PJ:

you put him home, but like everybody else, it's let's do this, folks.

Adam:

Agreed. They also hardly use mask abilities in this episode.

PJ:

Oh, yeah,

Adam:

Some lasers a jackrabbit is used, but not real. I mean, It's used,

PJ:

it's

Adam:

it's, It's pretty silly. Cut to. Scott and T Bob, they arrive at a lake which Scott points out is a salt lake which will be paid off later. And uh, sort of take, a seat to relax. And then suddenly, the blue algae appears in the background. They run, but we end with a freeze frame of them, which I haven't seen yet in Mask. They're running, what's gonna happen? Freeze frame. They're doomed. what's going to happen PJ? He's going to be

PJ:

I don't know. I don't know.

Adam:

We'll find out after these messages.

Come on, Jeebop. Mask will be right back. Oh, boy. Back to mask.

Adam:

We are back. When we left you, Scott and T Bob were about to be devoured by the deadly blue slime. Scott was anyway, but T Bob wouldn't be touched because he's not organic, right?

PJ:

Yeah, we're going to find that out momentarily, but you don't know that in the moment.

Adam:

Yeah, and then realizing that they're not going to be able to escape in time, T Bob grabs Scott and then extends his extendo arms and plops Scott in the lake moments before the blue algae overtakes T Bob. I was wondering why he didn't just transform it to scooter mode and send them both into the lake, but that's fine.

PJ:

seen him transform into scooter mode and accidentally leave Scott behind.

Adam:

True.

PJ:

Maybe this was like the one way he could guarantee that Scott would be in the lake. Which he was hoping was going to save Scott.

Adam:

There's no guarantee at all.

PJ:

They do an interesting like shot though. Like they've got one shot where it's like the slime coming down the screen and pushing Scott out with the arms. And then the other shot from Scott's point of view, where the focus, but T Bob is not. It's kind of a cool like moment.

Adam:

it's cool. Wish they had put the same thought into the tiny giraffes shot But that's okay. I'm noticing this trend though, where in the previous episode two, like T Ball was really stepping up when the day needs to be saved.

PJ:

I think it's the third episode in a row. Cause he did it here. He saved them, after Matt randomly shot at the cable to melt it.

Adam:

Right.

PJ:

T Bob was like, fuck this shit. I'm not going to deal with this anymore. I'm going to just save the day. And then before that he blows away Blackout. So T Bob's quickly becoming like the hero of the show.

Adam:

He absolutely is.

PJ:

To note. Scott actually is, again, not placing himself in danger. He was actually just following the instructions he was given.

Adam:

Matt. Again, putting his own son in danger. He maybe didn't know. He knew there was something out there.

PJ:

He brought Scott to Africa

Adam:

just got to Africa,

PJ:

experiment gone

Adam:

wrong. Yeah, father of the year. Right there. At any rate, the deadly blue slime stops short of the lake and then retreats. But T Bob is gone. Moments later, Matt and Alex land in Thunderhawk. They pick up Scott and they fly off to save T Bob. Matt shoots spectrum laser, but it doesn't do anything to the algae and the Thunderhawk wing cannons don't do much either, create a big hole, but then the algae just regenerates. And Alex says, self regenerating, incredible. And he's getting really excited now.

PJ:

I felt like you wanted to follow that up with, I haven't found anything this hard to kill in a long time.

Adam:

And meanwhile Venom is racing to catch up to the slime. Sly says, only we would be dumb enough to try to go meet this thing. they look ahead and they see Alex flying overhead using Jackrabbit. He's looking for T Bob. But the animation is so bad, it's funny. It's what we would do when we were kids, having Alex Fly in jackrabbit, just like moving like a still figure around in the sky.

PJ:

The animation was amazing, in terms of how bad it was. I officially just had some sound effects like Woo, woo, woo! Like we would have done as kids.

Adam:

Yeah, totally. Miles's plan is actually to not engage with mask directly, but just collect the slime and get out.

PJ:

I thought that was pretty smart on his part.

Adam:

Matt, Alex, and Scott discover T Bob left behind by the slime. And t Bobb is holding a bag of potato chips that Scott was eating earlier. So here we go with the the salt theme again. Alex realizes that anchovies and potato chips both have salt and salt, pulls water out of protoplasm, and makes it dry up. And that's why the deadly blue slime avoid salty things. And actually this is not bad thinking. This is pretty smart unless you've got a science corner to disprove it. Yeah,

PJ:

got some sort of biological organic material that's got some sort of organic acid that doesn't affect metals and those exist. I feel like I've read like acetic acidic and maybe formic acid are fall into this, but you, the rate at which it tends to dissolve the biological material, would imply it has a higher pH, but honestly, like whatever it does imply that it would leave behind some sort of waste product. Of whatever metals, because like it's consuming stuff and there's trace elements of like iron and chromium and biological materials. that means that would get left behind. So I don't know if Matt's trying to, leverage that after the fact, but it works at the salt would break down the cell walls of the organism. So I'm game.

Adam:

good thinking, like actually good thinking writers. meanwhile, Miles orders a frightened cliff and sly out to capture a sample of the blue slime. And also Matt sets up T Bob as bait for the deadly blue slime. And my, I was just realizing that both of these leaders have very little regard for the safety of their team.

PJ:

Cliff's arms are clearly like exposed now. Sly has a full bodysuit on. and maybe I was like, there's probably rubber or leather gloves. So those may not protect them at all. But yeah, they have very little like concern. Scott has to watch his quote unquote son T Bob, or at least the thing he created be dunked into the protoplasm.

Adam:

Speaking of that, Matt lowers T Bob into the algae and tells him to wait until he's near the bottom before extending his arms and legs. Here's a horrific moment where, from a rope, mind you, T Bob is slowly lowered from beneath Thunderhawk into the deadly blue slime. Now, Mile sees this, he gets upset, Transform switchblade into jet mode and goes after mask.

PJ:

Yeah, really interesting. This is actually the first time in the episode that mask knows that venom is there,

Adam:

Yeah,

PJ:

is actually had the drop on them. Honestly, like would probably have been a smart move in retrospect to actually shoot Thunderhawk down.

Adam:

right.

PJ:

but you know, miles actually is trying to do the clandestine thing, decides it's not going to work. And then. Maybe reveals themselves, but it's actually interesting because it happens fairly late in the episode.

Adam:

Very late in the episode, the theme song promises us that Mask is always riding hot on Venom's trail. And this episode, like some other ones, but this one is the biggest example of an episode where Venom could actually not be in it at all.

PJ:

Yeah.

Adam:

And you would still have the same exact episode.

PJ:

Yeah. Basically. It's really only this like End battle. That's not much. the threat really has been self generated and it remains the major threat. It's not venom. It's the blue slime.

Adam:

And all you needed to do to make this a typical episode of Mask is to have Miles is the one who stole the deadly blue slime in the first place. Just do a Rotex. This is, this could be Rotex only with the deadly blue slime.

PJ:

it's true. Although I find it more interesting this way.

Adam:

Oh, a hundred percent. I agree a hundred percent. It's just, if the promise of the premise of the episode of Mask is Mask fighting Venom to save the world, This is not an episode of Mask.

PJ:

Oh, that's true. No. I mean, This is a, as we pointed out earlier, this is covering up Matt's tracks basically.

Adam:

Oh yeah. Oh, also, vehicles and Mask powers are barely needed So we could not necessarily play this episode as kids with our toys.

PJ:

Yes. Unless we use the He Man slime,

Adam:

Yeah, that got stuck in the it got stuck in the carpet and Mom gets super mad about it.

PJ:

Yes. Yes.

Adam:

Hondo finally shows up in Hurricane and we see it transform for the first time and he does a great job disabling switchblade. Hurricane is an absolute beast of a machine. It is so cool.

PJ:

yeah. It is fucking rocking this whole thing. I just wished it was around more

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

episode, but like it takes out both switchblade. Demonstrating how much of a crack shot he is. We'll get to see what he does in a moment, because he's going to keep kicking ass.

Adam:

And do you notice he's wearing his new mask for the first time and he only had the half mask before like the Cyclops mask. So his entire lower face was and back of his head was revealed, but his new mask. Is really intense. I feel like they over corrected with like multiple layers. And it goes down a little bit down to the, his V neck, he's got two things over his shoulders. They're like okay. I heard your criticism. Hondo. We're going to fix it this time.

PJ:

they definitely jam in the other direction, pretty hardcore.

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

From what I've read, it's supposed to be twice as powerful as the old blaster, which made me wonder if it's now more powerful than spectrum laser.

Adam:

old blaster could vaporize steel. So what on earth could this thing do? I mean, You don't want to be around it when Hondo is using it. That's all I got to say. Meanwhile, T Bob gets to the bottom of the blue slime and he shoots out some never before seen grappling like hook things from inside his body. And somehow Matt is able to use this trick to pull the entire deadly blue slime creature off the ground. And I'm not sure how a liquid solid is able to be picked up in this fashion.

PJ:

Throw an idea that came to me. So let's, so first off with the grappling hooks, I thought, okay, in the universe of it, we've seen them fall to their dooms a lot of times. So maybe these have been installed after the fact to try to correct for that. It's not a parachute, like we talked to that last time, but it's oh, it's grappling hooks. I could imagine again, this could be corrected with a line of dialogue they need to do it this way is that they're running a current from T Bob through to create an electrostatic field that is what's actually used to like effectively attract the

Adam:

Yeah. No, you're

PJ:

fund award now, but.

Adam:

yeah, for sure.

PJ:

It's basically like how I would think about it is just Hey, like you throw up like the, some kind of electromagnetic field to attract the slime to it, to hold it together enough to actually move it someplace.

Adam:

That is the most writer's defense award nomination I've heard in this episode because I'm just I'm thinking this thing is like jello

PJ:

Yeah. I thought the same thing.

Adam:

yeah, now we have this moment where Scott sees like a little fawn and I think it's a, is that an onyx or an oryx or, I'm not sure what animal it is, but he uh, attempts to save an animal that's in the way of the deadly blue slime.

PJ:

Yeah. It's just sitting there and watching it. And it clearly has no survival instinct

Adam:

Right.

PJ:

because it should run away. So Scott decides that it's going to go and comfort the animal, as opposed to shooing it away.

Adam:

Or like trying to pick it up or shove it out of the way.

PJ:

right

Adam:

I will die with you.

PJ:

Yeah. It's proves that Scott has no survival instinct either.

Adam:

Yeah, for a boy genius, he's pretty darn dumb.

PJ:

He is, maybe he has gotten tired of life with Matt.

Adam:

Buddy. Hondo, meanwhile, goes after Clip and Sly, who are forced to run away.

PJ:

Like, Hondo rides this thing underneath the blue slime that's being picked up. Matt has no fear, and

Adam:

No fear at all. Yeah.

PJ:

out, I mean, like, everybody by himself.

Adam:

No, I know. You probably could have just dropped Hondo into this case and left Matt and Alex out of it and it would have been just fine. Nevertheless, Matt drops the blue algae into a salt lake nearby and we watch it. Horrified, by the way, as this creature writhes in pain It is horrifying!

PJ:

It really is. It, like, it feels pain, and it's like, it didn't ask to be created. created it, and now Matt destroys it. See?

Adam:

it's like the same as when, T Bob was getting smushed by the gravity waves. Like as uncomfortable to watch this thing, this huge thing die. It's a child. It's a baby really. It's just been born.

PJ:

Yeah.

Adam:

And it's crying out to its creator, and the creator says nothing, just watches it go. well, Matt, Points out that the fuel is almost gone in Thunderhawk, and so we're gonna have to let mayhem get away. Okay I guess Thunderhawk has some sort of fuel, the radiation is gone, he hasn't put any plutonium in it recently, but anyways.

PJ:

I mean, He did just haul a really huge biological creature. So I was kind of willing to give it a bit of a pass for what

Adam:

Alright, alright, so we'll give him a pass there. Yeah.

PJ:

fresh and obviously able to destroy all of the vehicles. So I'd probably be like, Hondo, can you take them all out?

Adam:

Yeah, totally. But what Matt is able to do is fire one of his famous magnetic pucks that attaches to Switchblade. It's like a homing beacon slash bugging device. he says this bugging device will lead us to him later. And do you think that Matt ever uses that device to, Follow up on the lead.

PJ:

In my watching of the episode, I was like, no, this is not going to be used. This is going to be a end.

Adam:

I thought they were pretty much wrapping things up here,

PJ:

Right.

Adam:

course they actually ended up doing because next thing that happens is the team gathers together and listens in on miles's conversation with the slime cliff who revealed to miles that they weren't able to get a sample of the slime and while miles is having a total conniption fit, Matt, Alex, Hondo, Scott, and T Bob, All break out laughing.

PJ:

This is how they react towards world ending events. All the time. So I'll admit I was wrong. It was useful to get this information. There's some fun dialogue in there where Sly's like, I didn't want to be known as lefty for the rest of my life.

Adam:

Right.

PJ:

But I do have a question for you. So, um, I mean, Obviously like, you know, miles is. On the loose. He knows about the slime, but who else knows about the slime

Adam:

The scientist who worked on it?

PJ:

and uh, what's gonna happen to them?

Adam:

We talked about the ravine earlier in the episode. Matt can't have these loose ends just floating around there out in the world. They're gonna be disappeared. And that's all there is to say on that, as far as Matt's concerned. There's another reason why Hondo's here.

PJ:

Blaster?

Adam:

absolutely. Uh, That's it. They laugh and uh, we cut to the more, you know, we're at a lake somewhere. It doesn't feel like Africa, but it's a big continent. So who knows? I will point out it's pretty much all white people who are there at the lake. So

PJ:

to be fair for better or for worse, and, you know, you can go either way on this one. we don't see any natives of Tanzania

Adam:

Right. Any local people are right. There are no local Tanzanian scene anywhere. So anyways Scott's about to go swimming in this lake and T Bob says he'll go with him and be his buddy. And uh, Matt, who's lying there kind of sits up and says uh, it's always good to have a buddy. And T Bob says everybody should have a buddy, even buddy Hawks, what I like here is that, okay, first of all, the lesson is When you go swimming, have a buddy.

PJ:

Yes.

Adam:

But also I like how Matt didn't say that Scott should have a buddy. It was actually T Bob who suggested it. And Matt was like, Oh yeah, good idea. Then pops open a Zima

PJ:

It would have been a Bartles and James in the 80s. So yeah, I agree. He was day drinking and was like, Oh yeah! Good idea.

Adam:

Yeah. So we end with a father of the year moment. So, uh, Episode, is it panda poo? Yeah.

PJ:

It's funny, when we talk about panda poo, We're often judging by kind of the actions of venom, I think of, do they seem like they have a viable plan? And honestly like, I actually thought venom did some very smart moves here. They didn't cause the situation, we do see them getting informed of it and taking advantage of the situation

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

you know, the idea of of threatening the world. I'll be at, you know, the salt thing becomes it would become a problem all right, biological warfare. That's a terrorist plan, and it's worth billions of dollars. I, again, it's not panda poo, but it's not, it's also, I'm really disturbed.

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

straight up disturbed about what we learned about tracker research here.

Adam:

Mhm.

PJ:

they, they're clearly incompetent at their jobs

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

explosion happen,

Adam:

hmm. Right.

PJ:

Dangerous biological material it's funded by Matt and Matt's willing to participate in a coverup. make sure the word doesn't get out that they created this giant thing. So I'm really like unhappy about how much it's confirmed for us.

Adam:

Mm hmm.

PJ:

Panda poo, but like certainly places everything into a light is what we

Adam:

Yeah. Yeah. From a world building standpoint is backing up everything we thought about Matt that that he's an arms dealeR. another childhood bubble has been burst.

PJ:

Panda poo for you?

Adam:

no, only in that it was not really a mask episode, but it was about a wealthy billionaire trying to cover up a world destroying horror that was accidentally unleashed by his own people. Let's move on to our awards. A Slyrax Ragdoll Award.

PJ:

I did not have one this

Adam:

No, T Bob survives being dunked in the deadly blue slime, but,

PJ:

Yeah.

Adam:

no one crashes and is killed, but somehow doesn't die, so. No Slyrax Ragdoll award this episode. What about a Roy Batty award for T Bob? Yeah, and

PJ:

the slime to stop it like what is going through T Bob's head at that point in time just saved Scott.

Adam:

now he's being dunked into it. No, I agree 100%. Father of the Year?

PJ:

There's probably a few, it occurred to me, one could just be the very inception of bringing Scott to an area that has a known biological hazard

Adam:

Yeah, that goes without saying for pretty much every single

PJ:

fair.

Adam:

episode.

PJ:

leaving Scott behind in the savannah by himself, despite the fact being patrolled, he's still a 10 or 11 year old boy.

Adam:

Right.

PJ:

Out with wild animals.

Adam:

Yeah, are lions. Out there at the very least. So yeah, I'd agree with you on that one. And also, drunk dad, sunbathing, forgetting to tell his son to go swimming with a buddy,

PJ:

Yeah.

Adam:

job, Matt. Good job. Finally the buddy Hawks award. What do we got for our nominations?

PJ:

All right. So the computer certainly gets a nomination because Hondo's knowledge of African geography did not come into play. And it really is just suspect of just having the one black guy on the team go

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

in quote unquote Africa.

Adam:

Yep.

PJ:

So there's that. And then we tag onto that the writers get to add to their lifetime achievement award by referring to Africa as if it's a country the entire fucking time.

Adam:

Yeah. Congrats writers. You are earning more and more laurels.

PJ:

I'll tell you, this is a slight oddball curve ball for me. My nomination actually goes to something a little understated which is Matt Tracker putting a biological research facility. a country with apparently no regulatory oversight, and it just felt a little bit racist to be like, ah, we'll just put it somewhere in Africa. are they going to do? I'm actually going to give it to Matt for whatever process he did to end up with just a, biological research facility in Tanzania.

Adam:

Yeah. Reeks of colonialism. I agree. A hundred percent with that, man. That's a very good one. So congrats, Matt. Buddy Hawks award goes to you for this episode. That's it for episode 31, 32. The Currency Conspiracy. In the Swiss Alps, masks must stop venom from using an organism that eats the ink off printed money, rendering the bills worthless at the behest of a corrupt finance minister. Wow.

PJ:

Hey, Adam, guess where that corrupt finance minister is

Adam:

Oh no.

PJ:

West Germany. And we'll also dive into some discussion of how we ended up with fiat currency uh, and how it impacts this particular episode and why crypto might've come out of the response. For this incident happening,

Adam:

Wow, man. This is, and again, more links to Nazis and their financing.

PJ:

it's crazy

Adam:

All right. Mask never fails to disappoint. Hopefully you weren't disappointed by this episode either, but whether you liked it or not, we've got to transform and head back to HQ. I am Adam Moore.

PJ:

and I am PJ McNerney,

Adam:

Bye bye.

PJ:

bye.

The mobile armored podcast show is written, produced and edited. Bye Adam Moore. And PJ McNerney.